Flawed police plan to blame for Marikana tragedy: Farlam

Retired judge Ian Farlam says a flawed police plan to disperse, disarm and arrest miners is what led to the Marikana tragedy.

The the tragic bloodbath claimed the lives of 44 people at Lonmin’s platinum mine in Rustenburg, North West, in August 2012.

Farlam, who chaired the Farlam Commission, attended the release of a report into scene two of the massacre on Wednesday.

The scene has come to be known as a place where police actively pursued miners.

“The so-called tactical operation should not have been continued towards koppies at scene two. The operation should have been called off at the end of scene one,” explains Farlam.

Speaking for the first time since the completion of the commission looking into the killings, judge Farlam also refuted statements that the families of the deceased were not given an opportunity to address the commission into the killings.

#MarikanaPolicing: Farlam: The question is why did the police act in the manner they did? The provincial commissioner was very agitated. She was desperate. She summoned Mathunjwa who had promised to get miners to lay down their arms.

He says South Africans have become too preoccupied with politics and corruption in the country.

“Are we just all about corruption as a society? Is that the only discussion we can have? In the past six or seven years, in the dinner tables, braai places, South Africans have been preoccupied with corruption,” lamented Mathekga.